Browsing the 2017 archive of NOTES FROM THE DESK OF....

So 2017 is just about over. Once again, it has been quite an eventful year. In January Donald Trump assumed the Presidency. Whatever you think of him, he certainly is a provocative person. With his initiatives we have witnessed the debates about immigration and proposed travel bans, how to ... Read More »

St. Francis of Assisi loved Christmas, and we Franciscans do too! As you probably know, St. Francis popularized the Christmas crèche tradition. A few years before he died, in a little Italian town called Greccio, St. Francis had the townspeople gather a manger and some live animals in a ... Read More »

The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally referred to as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin word for “rejoice,” and this designation is meant to echo and reinforce the admonition from the very first sentence of today’s second reading from 1 Thessalonians, “rejoice always.” The idea is that the ... Read More »

This Advent season is a short one; we will lose the 4th week since the 4th Sunday falls on Christmas Eve. Not only does this make the scheduling of Masses a bit difficult; it also means we will not hear some of the beautiful Advent Scripture readings. We will ... Read More »

New liturgical season, new worship aids (“Celebrating the Eucharist”), new pastor! This is just some of the newness we might see this weekend of December here at Transfiguration parish. The Advent season has arrived, the beginning of the new Church year. With something new, with a new beginning there ... Read More »

A THANKSGIVING PRAYER FOR ONESELF Lord God, thank you for making me who I am. This is difficult for me to say because so often I have wanted to be someone else. I didn’t like the way I was built, the bodily features ... Read More »

In a few weeks we will be hearing Christmas carols in retail stores as we walk down the aisles of colorful packaged holiday merchandise and decorations. On our TVs we will notice the traditional Christmas movies being promoted and programmed once again. One of my favorite films for the ... Read More »

What are we looking for in our lives? What really matters to us? What is that for which our hearts and souls hunger and thirst so deeply? From a mere academic or catechetical viewpoint we might say “God is my deepest longing. To be at one with God is ... Read More »

An important message in today’s Gospel reading is that we need to remember WHO we are and WHOSE we are. (Matthew 23:1-12) This is a message we too quickly forget; we are children of God and we belong to God. How simple this message is! Yet, how quickly we ... Read More »

Next Sunday and during that week I will be at St. Mary’s Church in Bloomington, IL for their parish mission. I was asked to present a series of talks for the parishioners on the occasion of their 150th anniversary as a parish, 1867-2017. As I recall, St. Mary’s has ... Read More »